Nellie Netterville; or, One of the Transplanted, Chapter XV-XVII [pp. 736-752]

Nellie Netterville.
NELLIE NETTERVILLE; OR, ONE OF THE TRANSPLANTED.
CHAPTER XV.
BEFORE leaving the guard-room,
Ormiston poured out a large goblet
of wine from a flask which he had
sent one of the soldiers to procure at
a wine-tavern hard by, and insisted
upon Nellie drinking it to the last
drop.
The remainder of the flask he gave
to Roger, who, truth to say, was almost as much in need of it as Nellie;
and they then all went forth together,
O'More having previously pledged
his word, both to Ormiston and Holdfast, to consider himself merely as
a prisoner at large, until they themselves should release him from his
parole.
Their way led them from the gatehouse into Bridge street, and from
thence to Ormond Gate, Earl's Gate,
"Geata-na-Eorlagh," as it was then
sometimes called. With Major Ormiston in their company, this was
opened to them without a question,
and they afterward proceeded, as fast
as Nellie's strength permitted, up the
steep hill street, debouching into the
Corn Market. Enteriifg the latter,
they found themselves face to face
with Newgate, the great criminal prison of the city. There it stood, dark,
strong, and terrible-too strong, Roger could not help thinking, to be a
fitting prison for the frail, dying woman it was guarding for the hangman. It seemed, indeed, almost like
an abuse of power to have cast her
there, so helpless as she was, and powerless, in the strong grasp of the law.
Newgate had originally formed a
square, having at each of its four angles a tower, three stories high, and
turreted at the top. Two of these
however, those facing toward the
city, had been recently taken down;
and when Nellie looked upon it for
the first time, it consisted merely of
the gate-house, with its portcullis and
iron gates, and a strong tower at
either end. Near the prison stood
the gibbet, metaphorically as well as
really; for few, indeed, in those sad
days, were the prisoners who, once
shut up within the walls of Newgate,
ever left them for a pleasanter destination than the gallows. Fromn the
position in which it stood, they could
hardly avoid seeing it as they passed
onward toward the prison; but in
the faint hope of sparing at least
poor Nellie's eyes this terrible apparition, Ormiston stepped a little in
advance of his companions, and
placed himself between her and it.
Roger, however, upon whose arm she
leaned, knew, by the sudden tremor
which shook her frame that this tender caution had been in vain. Nellie, in fact, had already seen and
guessed at the ghastly nature of its
office there; and as her eye glanced
reluctantly-and almost, as it were,
in spite of herself-toward it, she
felt as if she had never before thoroughly realized the awful position in
which her mother stood. What wonder that she grew sick and giddy as
the thought forced itself, in all its
naked reality, on her mind, that her
mother-her motlher, the very type
and personification of refined and
delicate womanhood-might at any
hour be dragged hither, shrinking
and ashamed, beneath the rude hangman's grasp? What wonder that her
very feet failed to do their office, and
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